On Monday, Xerox announced that it has changed its logo after many years to brand its identity that reflects the Xerox of today.   

“The new logo consists of a bright red lower-case “xerox” that sits alongside a red sphere sketched with lines that link to form a stylized X. According to Anne M. Mulcahy, Xerox’s chief, that little piece of art represents the connection to customers, partners, industry and innovation.”  (MORE)

I think it is very important for geo sites that already have a logo, to reevaluate their logos every year to ensure they are still in touch with the trendy consumers who visit their sites. Why every year?  The internet changes so rapidly with technology and designs that consumers expect logo evolution to follow the trendy cities they visit online. Additionally, key things may occur in a region that bring value to an area or demolish known landmarks.  It is a fashion statement you send to visitors when your logo communicates clearly about the region they are proud of or want to visit. 

Is your current logo sending the right message to visitors?  Does it outline the goals the site wishes to deliver.  Geo domains are not like any other internet business.  They are expected to greet consumers with a personalized touch.  A logo can be dated, such as cabinets in a house.  Geopreneurs need to think outside of the box about their current logo and determine if it communicates a clear effective message.  Just because it has worked for the last 2, 3, 4, 5 years, does not neccesarily mean it is still effective.  Evaluate the trends in the region and make the neccessary adjustments to your logo to fulfill visitor expectations.

We should always strive for excellence with our geo domain development, as we are the ambassadors to the Worlds’ “Entrance” to a city, state, country, region, or geo industry. 

What are your thoughts good or bad?   

There are times it is difficult to find well written articles on the internet that the average person can understand in layman’s terms, without getting confused with all the technical mumbo jumbo.  Here is an article that does a pretty good job with the basics.  For detailed information on this subject, you can click (Here).  Enjoy!

By Mihaela Lica

Color Psychology and Branding

Color is probably one of the most powerful psychological tools and we are often not even aware of its power. If you didn’t know it by now, the industrial psychology has a special field that studies the in-depth psychology of color.

Color is a very important factor in online branding, not solely for logos, but for web graphics in general. A simple shade of red could either send a good, positive message or generate an aggressive state of mind. To put it clear: color drives emotions and emotions are the most important factor in decision-making.

Color psychology is rather hard to define when we consider cultural differences, personal beliefs and subjective meanings. But some general aspects might help you in choosing the right colors for online branding.

First of all for a business website you should avoid dark backgrounds, especially black. It is true that dark backgrounds, when used wisely, might create a “charmed” atmosphere, but is this the message you want to send? Shouldn’t you be focusing on “reliability”, “trustworthiness”, “quality” and other such positive values? For a business website, avoid the “Twilight Zone” look and feel, unless you sell magic potions, books of mystery or other such products.

Light backgrounds are the best choice to create uncluttered layouts. This is also the latest trend in web design. The “heavy” websites of the past, with their saturated colors, their marble tiles patterns and their stripped backgrounds are passé. Sophisticated designs employ light colors with random dark hue accents, simple layouts and high quality, unique graphics that match the color scheme of the design.

Logos should still employ powerful, recognizable colors, the kind of colors that capture attention and appeal to the senses.

Usually, blue logos don’t fail because blue is the favorite color of a clear majority of people. A look at the clear blue sky would help your body produce the chemicals you need to relax. But when it comes to dark blues, too much might cause stress and nervous tension. Commonly logo designers use navy blue for business-to-business logos, for financial logos and for official logos, as this color suggests dependability and straightforwardness, precisely the values needed for such affairs.

Green, in its various shades, is perfect for the hospitality industry, food industry (especially for BIO products) cosmetic (if we consider Yves Rocher and Garnier) and ecology.

Although each color has its audience and its industry, there are cases when one color might be successfully employed for atypical applications. It’s just a matter of “how to” design using that color and other hues to create the best color combination.

Reds and orange are not so easy to deal with, especially online. But they do have their fans (Ferrari, Coca-Cola, etc) and with a good design they will reach the targeted audience faster than other colors. That’s because red is the color of energy, movement and excitement.

(More)

 ”Out of the box thought of the day”

Over the years, I have travelled to quite a few places on America’s highways. Today, I drove to Raleigh, NC to drop my mother off at the airport and an interesting thought came to me while I was driving. I wondered why state/city governments have not taken advantage of the major tourists signs on the highways and emplaced the associated website on the signs. This is a no brainer in my eyes as a large percentage of city and state taxes come from tourist attractions. How much more taxes could be generated through online sales of those people who do not get a chance to visit those tourist areas because they travelling to another place? People are mobile and they are always looking for information in the area that interests them before they act. An associated website fills this need and entices people to act, if the information they were seeking is fullfilled. This game plan would not only benefit tourists, it would benefit the locals of the area as well. If I were an owner of one of these tourist areas, I would request for the city/state to embrace this game plan and place the associated website on the highway sign. Online profits would soar!

How many times have you driven past a tourist sign on the highway and wanted to learn more about it before actually visiting it?

Another thought, cities and states always have a “Welcome To” sign when you enter their region. Why do you think they haven’t emplaced their corresponding website on these signs? It would be nice for a visitor to have the option to learn more about the region with a website listed on these signs. Whether a .com or .gov extention, everyone involved would benefit and state/city governments would generate additional revenue thru the sales of suvenuirs. While there are some states that have done this, the majority just don’t get it and are missing out on Geo/local domain branding opportunity to implant into the heads of all those motorists that pass the signs daily.

Same could be said for all the business signs you pass daily without a website listed on them. Geo/local domain branding is a no brainer if only they used the same signs they use to promote the name of their business.

Godspeed,

Steve